Six candidates for Encinitas mayor and City Council drew lines on surveillance cameras and immigration enforcement at a voter forum Thursday, Sept. 17, six weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
About 150 people filled St. Andrew's Episcopal Church for the League of Women Voters North County, San Diego forum, where all six candidates shared a stage and answered pre-submitted questions in a rotating format, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Three races are on the ballot: mayor, District 3 City Council and District 4 City Council, each with two candidates.
The candidates agreed on many issues.
On ICE enforcement and Flock license-plate cameras, they did not.
ICE enforcement
Mayor Bruce Ehlers, Councilmember Marco San Antonio and District 3 candidate Ed Sprague, a retired firefighter and professor, said the city is doing what it can. Ehlers said Encinitas maintains a web page tracking ICE activity and arrests but that the federal government's response to the city's information requests has not been "real good."
San Antonio, who represents District 4, said his parents were legal immigrants and that he believes ICE is doing its job. Sprague said most ICE activity in town is uneventful and that agents target people who have engaged in criminal activity.
Challengers took a different view. Mayoral candidate Rimga Viskanta, a San Dieguito Union High School District trustee, said some immigrants' rights are being violated and that the city needs to support families whose loved ones have been arrested. She pointed to cases where a person's status falls in a gray area, once considered legal and now not.
District 3 candidate Arielle Golden, former chair of the North County Food Policy Council and a 13-year Encinitas resident, said "ICE is tearing apart our community" and called on the city to help residents feel less afraid. District 4 challenger Brad Lefkowits, chair of the city's Urban Forest Advisory Committee, said the city should post "more honest information" on its website rather than what he called "Trump propaganda."
ICE enforcement has been a recurring flashpoint in Encinitas. In March, the San Diego County Sheriff's Office said it had no involvement after a viral video showed what appeared to be plainclothes federal agents in the North Coastal Sheriff's Station parking lot.
Flock cameras
Flock's solar-powered cameras record license plates and check them against law enforcement databases for stolen vehicles or those tied to criminal cases.
Ehlers and Sprague both supported the systems. San Antonio broke from them, saying he backs a separate red-light camera program but opposes Flock cameras because they capture more personal data and invade privacy. The City Council voted 4-1 on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to direct staff to research a red-light camera pilot project, with Councilmember Jim O'Hara the sole dissenting vote.
Viskanta said law enforcement should have limited access to Flock camera images. Golden and Lefkowits both said they met with the Sheriff's captain who manages the Encinitas station and still had concerns. Golden worried about how the camera company might use collected data. Lefkowits said pausing the cameras might be a good idea.
What's next
A Cardiff-by-the-Sea Town Council and Cardiff 101 Main Street mayoral forum featuring Ehlers and Viskanta is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 22, at 6 p.m. at Ada W. Harris Elementary School Auditorium, 1508 Windsor Rd., Cardiff-by-the-Sea.
